Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19th 1473 in Torun, Eastern Poland. He studied
mathematics, optics and medicine at Krakow University and went on to study law, Greek and the writings of
Plato at Bologna University in Italy. After being appointed canon in Frauenburg Cathedral, Poland,
Copernicus visited Rome and spent four years in Padua, studying law and medicine. He was awarded a doctorate
in canon law from Padua University in 1503.

Copernicus returned to Frauenburg where he remained for the rest of his life. He did not
waste his spare time; he was a painter, he translated Greek poetry into Latin and he observed the skies at
night. In fact, Copernicus’s first recorded observation of the heavens is from his days in Bologna; it is here
he observed the eclipse of the star Aldebaran by the Moon in 1497. Remember that the telescope would not be invented for another one hundred years so all of
Copernicus’s observations were made with an un-aided eye.

Copernicus published accounts of his celestial observations. Between 1497 and 1529 he
sent twenty seven papers to print. However, he is best known for his theory on the movement of the sun and
planets. Copernicus, as Aristarchus before him, rejected the idea that the Earth was the centre of the
universe (the geocentric theory). He detailed the Heliocentric theory, (that the Earth and the other
planets orbit the sun), and supported his theory with mathematical calculations. Copernicus first explained
his theory in a short paper written in 1514. This paper was mostly circulated amongst his friends, since the
heliocentric theory was not popular with the Church. The Roman Catholic Church officially recognised
Ptolemy’s geocentric theory and it was dangerous to speak out against this doctrine.

Even though Copernicus followed his short paper by a book, "Concerning the Revolution
of Celestial Spheres", he left his work unpublished. In 1539 a German mathematics professor, George Rheticus,
visited Copernicus and stayed with him, as his student, for two years. It was Rheticus who convinced Copernicus
to publish. The book was published in 1540 and Copernicus died three years later. He would never know
about the commotion his book was going to cause in Catholic Europe.